‘It was part of history’ - memories of the Glasgow Apollo

Emails and letters are still pouring in to Times Past HQ following our recent features on the legendary music venue and its predecessor Green’s Playhouse.

Andrew Wood recalls the night Marc Bolan played the venue.

“In the mid-to-late 70s, the Apollo was my second home,” he says. “I was at the concert at which he gave The Damned a stage to play on, when no-one else would because of the media hype against the punk movement.

“I remember the gig actually being cancelled at the last minute because some equipment had not arrived – and I mean, last minute. The Apollo was packed and the atmosphere was electric, with everyone keen to see this new punk phenomenon.”

The gig went ahead the next night and The Damned performed “an hour of noise which no one really cared if it was good or not, the point was you were there,” he says.

(Incidentally, the Damned recently announced a live tour for 2021 – with the original line up of Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible, drummer Rat Scabies and guitarist Brian James together on stage for the first time in more than 25 years.)

Joe Amato has been following the Apollo memories articles with interest too.

The Damned. John Ingham 1977

“I paid 7/6 each (about 37 and a half pence in today’s money) to see one of my favourite acts at the time, Jimi Hendrix, at Green’s Playhouse,” he says.

“The show was fantastic. As the crowd warmed up people began to stand on the old rickety wooden backed seats and eventually we had to do the same. What a night, it will live with me for ever.”

Years later, at The Who gig, Green’s was now the Apollo and the seats were much fancier. It was another memorable night for Joe, but for all the wrong reasons.

“When I left that night I discovered my car, which I’d parked on West Nile Street, had been stolen,” he sighs..

In 1968, Sam McKay was working for the company which got the contract to supply the lighting when Green’s Playhouse was converted into the Apollo.

READ MORE: Glasgow's late great Apollo was hit with city music fans

“We were working there right up until hours before the opening night and the management said we could watch the show from the ‘gods’ – the top tier that had not yet been opened,” he says. “So there we were, joiners, electricians, plumbers, all filthy from working all day, sitting watching Johnny Cash…”

The lighting system was housed in an area accessed via an emergency exit on Renfrew Street, and Sam recalls popping up on many an occasion to be let in the back door by his pals in the lighting room.

“I saw The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, The Osmonds…brilliant,” he says. “My only regret was never going to see Queen. To see Freddie Mercury live would have been something.”

Alice Cooper at Greens Playhouse, Glasgow, 1970s Pic: Newsquest

Michael Prater wrote a short, but evocative, letter about his favourite gig.

“I saw Alice Cooper atGreen’s Playhouse in November 1972,” he says. “It was an amazing gig but the crowd wrecked the place at the end. I was nearly arrested for pinching my seat...”

Steve Dolman moved to Glasgow from Manchester for his first job, and one night, spotted Emmylou Harris and the the Hot Band were playing the Apollo.

“I was a little homesick and lonely, so I queued up and got tickets in the balcony, the one that even down south I had heard ‘shook’ on gig nights,” he says.

“It was far from glamorous and not especially clean. But it was a part of history. I saw a great gig by one of my favourite artistes who somehow made me feel at home. And I had some great chat with my neighbours in the row.”

Forty years later, Steve and his family still stay in Glasgow – in Moodiesburn on the city’s outskirts – and he still talks about the gigs he saw at the Apollo.

Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band

“A legendary venue? Yeah, I think so,” he agrees.

“Even if it wouldn’t likely pass modern health and safety requirements...”